It’s not too often that a pro referee admits they got a call wrong, at least that the fans hear.
However, referee Jenna Schroeder was overheard telling 76ers head coach Nick Nurse that she made a mistake when she ejected Andre Drummond and reinstated him back into the game during a bizarre Monday evening in Philadelphia.
Drummond was sent to the locker room after Spurs star Victor Wembanyama fell to the ground and Schroeder believed that the Sixers player had something to do with the incident.
The replay, however, showed that Wembanyama had dove or fell over his feet.
After the officials reviewed the play, Schroeder went over to the Sixers bench and apologized for her error.
“I f–ked up! [Wembanyama] gets a technical and I’m sorry about that,” Schroeder could be heard saying to Nurse before seeming to apologize to the rest of the bench.
Drummond was given a hero’s welcome when he came back out of the tunnel from the locker room after the foul call and the ejection were rescinded.
Crew chief Curtis Blair told a pool reporter after the game that the call had been overturned because the refs “determined that Drummond stepped on Wembanyama’s foot and it was deemed incidental contact.”
The technical foul against Wembanyama for the flop was also rescinded since the officials believed that the Spurs big man tripped over Drummond’s foot.
“She did. I was kind of doing something else. I think she was saying that to somebody else, but I did hear her say that. That was obviously when they flipped the call and she admitted it,” Nurse said when asked about the moment Schroeder acknowledged the mess up.
